by the Dutch.  But it is at present impossible to build in the islands the ships needed there; for the natives are exhausted by the labors and exactions imposed upon them in previous years, and by the deaths of so many at the hands of the enemy or through the hardships of enforced naval service.  Pineda recommends that the ships needed for the islands be built in India or Cochin, and that slaves be brought thence to serve on the Philippine galleys.  Many Filipino natives are migrating to Nueva Espana, which should be checked.  One reason for this is the fact that these Filipinos distil palm-wine, which will soon ruin the wine-trade of Spain in Nueva Espana.  The incursions of the Mindanao pirates have also been a serious obstacle to shipbuilding in the Philippines; and they have rendered the use of La Caldera, as a station for the Spanish vessels, impossible, while they welcome the Dutch to their shores.  Pineda recommends that the king proclaim that any one who wishes may wage war upon and enslave these Mindanao infidels, as thus only can they be subdued.  He ends with a report on the measurements of the galleons in the islands in 1617.

A royal decree dated February 19, 1619, confirms the ordinance enacted by the dean and cabildo of Manila cathedral, refusing benefices and ecclesiastical dignities to religious who have been expelled from their orders.

The Dominican missionary Diego Aduarte proposes to the Council of the Indias (probably in May, 1619) a means to check the outflow of silver from Nueva Espana to the Philippines.  Aduarte recommends that the trade of the islands with Nueva Espana be suppressed, and that their inhabitants be allowed to trade with Japan, selling in that country the silks that they buy from the Chinese.  But the bulk of this trade is already in the hands of the Portuguese of Macao; in order that it may be monopolized by Manila, Aduarte advises that Macao be abandoned, and its inhabitants transported to other cities of India.  This can be accomplished easily by a royal decree forbidding them to engage in the Japanese trade, which would compel them to go elsewhere.  He enumerates the beneficial results of this measure, and declares that even without these Macao should be abandoned; for its people are lawless and irreligious, and are not even vassals of Spain, but of China.  The Portuguese of Macao are needed in India, which country would be benefited in many ways by the measure proposed, as also would the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal.  Moreover, they hinder, by their evil example, the conversion of the Chinese natives.